I don't consider Tom Cruise's star power to be a reason for the success of The Mummy in China, especially when it's pointed out in the article that his films don't all do well in the Celestial Kingdom.
Instead, the Chinese success of the Mummy is all deliberately engineered with decisions that would have ensured its failure at the Western box office.
This film made a very smart decision to market itself as a horror film (see the photo above) even though it's an action film. Also, beecause the film doesn't follow the cardinal rule of "show, don't tell," they are able to shoehorn in lots of wooden exposition. Through the use of verbose voiceovers and subtitled text, Chinese audiences can keep up with a foreign film.
Sure, subtitles can kill a film, but there's no talking during the important action set pieces.